Mozambique Tuna Bonds Scandal: Lawsuits, Convictions, and Settlements

The Mozambique tuna bonds scandal refers to roughly $2 billion in secret, bribe-tainted loans arranged in 2013 and 2014 for three Mozambican state-owned companies, ostensibly to fund maritime patrols, a tuna fishing fleet, and a shipyard. The money was hollowed out by kickbacks, the debts were hidden from parliament and the IMF, and the fallout has produced a nearly $2 billion London High Court judgment, criminal convictions in Mozambique and the United States, and hundreds of millions in regulatory penalties against Credit Suisse.

How the Scheme Worked

Between 2013 and 2014, three Mozambican state-owned enterprises — Proindicus, EMATUM, and Mozambique Asset Management — signed supply contracts with companies in the Privinvest Group, a Middle Eastern shipbuilding conglomerate chaired by Iskandar Safa. Credit Suisse arranged loan facilities of roughly $1.5 billion, and Russian bank VTB provided another $540 million. Mozambique’s government backed the borrowing with sovereign guarantees pledging that the state itself would repay.¹

Most of that borrowing was kept hidden from Mozambique’s own parliament and from international donors. When the debts came to light in 2016, Mozambique defaulted, the IMF froze its aid program, and the country entered a fiscal crisis it has still not fully escaped.²

Underneath the loans sat a bribery operation. Emails introduced at trial showed Privinvest executive Jean Boustani and Mozambican intermediary Teólio Nhangumele discussing “success fees” as early as 2011 and the need to “massage the system” to secure political approval from the government of then-President Armando Guebuza.¹³⁴ Mozambique’s then-Finance Minister, Manuel Chang, who signed the sovereign guarantees, was accused of accepting $7 million.⁵

The London High Court Judgment

In 2019, Mozambique, acting through its Attorney General, sued Privinvest, Iskandar Safa, and Credit Suisse in the London High Court. Twelve related cases were managed together.¹

On the eve of the October 2023 trial, Credit Suisse (by then absorbed into UBS) settled with Mozambique, waiving all claims. VTB and Portugal’s Banco Comercial Português settled in June 2024. That left Privinvest as the only defendant at trial.¹⁶

Justice Robin Knowles handed down judgment on July 29, 2024. He found that payments to or for the benefit of Manuel Chang by Privinvest and Safa constituted bribes creating liability under both English and Mozambican law. He wrote that “no major activity proceeded without [Safa’s] knowledge and approval” and that Safa’s denials of bribery were not “consistently truthful.” Mozambique was awarded damages and an indemnity for future losses totaling approximately $2.3 billion, subject to a credit of $421 million for assets already recovered.⁷¹

Privinvest announced an appeal, but in May 2026 the Court of Appeal dismissed it after Privinvest failed to comply with the security conditions the court had imposed. The July 2024 judgment is now final against Privinvest’s business entities, and the company owes Mozambique the costs of the failed appeal.⁸

Iskandar Safa died on January 29, 2024, after the trial ended but before judgment. He died intestate, and under Lebanese law heirs inherit both assets and liabilities directly unless they formally renounce. In June 2025, Justice Knowles authorized Mozambique to add Safa’s widow, Clara Martinez Thedy de Safa, and his sons Akram and Alejandro Safa, as defendants, rejecting arguments that the case should move to Lebanon. Enforcement against the estate continues.⁹¹⁰

Criminal Cases in the United States

Manuel Chang was arrested in South Africa in December 2018 and eventually extradited to the United States. After a four-week trial in Brooklyn, a jury convicted him in August 2024 of conspiring to commit wire fraud and money laundering. On January 17, 2025, U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis sentenced him to 102 months — eight and a half years — in federal prison and ordered him to forfeit $7 million.⁵¹¹

The three Credit Suisse bankers — Pearse, Singh, and Subeva — each pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of New York. Despite guidelines calling for years in prison, all three received sentences of time served, largely because they cooperated with prosecutors. Pearse, sentenced by Judge Garaufis in March 2025, had been the prosecution’s principal witness against Chang and Boustani, and agreed to forfeit substantial assets.³ Singh also received time served, with Judge Garaufis praising his testimony as “candid, direct, measured and thoughtful.”⁴ Subeva was sentenced in 2022 to time served and ordered to forfeit $200,000.¹² The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority later imposed lifetime bans on all three, prohibiting them from working in regulated financial services in Britain.¹³

The one U.S. defendant who walked away clean was Jean Boustani, the Privinvest salesman at the center of the scheme. Tried separately in Brooklyn in late 2019 on wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering conspiracy charges, he was acquitted on all counts on December 2, 2019. Because he is not a U.S. citizen, prosecutors could not charge him under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and instead built their case around harm to American investors who bought the Mozambique-linked securities. Post-trial interviews suggested jurors viewed the Eastern District of New York as the wrong venue for conduct that took place largely overseas.¹⁴¹⁵

Credit Suisse’s Regulatory Settlements

In October 2021, Credit Suisse agreed to a coordinated global settlement of approximately $475 million with U.S. and UK regulators. The SEC found that the bank had violated antifraud provisions, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and internal accounting controls by facilitating a “hidden debt scheme” that raised over $1 billion while concealing the diversion of funds to kickbacks and bribes. The package included roughly $100 million to the SEC, a $247 million criminal fine from the DOJ (with $175 million actually paid after credits), and over $200 million in penalties from the FCA.¹⁶

Swiss Proceedings

Swiss authorities pursued their own cases. In April 2026, Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court dismissed the case against UBS as Credit Suisse’s legal successor, ruling that Credit Suisse had ceased to exist as a criminal legal entity after the 2023 UBS takeover. A former compliance chief, Lara Warner, was fined 100,000 Swiss francs in 2025 for failing to report a suspicious $7.8 million transaction, but in late May 2026 the same court threw out the sanction because the statute of limitations had expired. The Swiss Finance Ministry appealed that ruling on June 1, 2026.⁶

Separately, the Swiss Office of the Attorney General filed an indictment in November 2025 against another former Credit Suisse compliance employee, accusing her of money laundering for recommending that the bank close a suspicious business relationship without filing a report with Switzerland’s anti-money-laundering office. UBS, named as a co-defendant, said it “firmly rejects” the charges.¹⁷

Convictions Inside Mozambique

Mozambique ran its own criminal trial. In December 2022, the Maputo City Court convicted eleven defendants. Ndambi Guebuza, son of former President Armando Guebuza, received twelve years for embezzlement, money laundering, and criminal association. Former intelligence chiefs Gregorio Leao and Antonio Carlos do Rosário each got twelve years for embezzlement and abuse of power, as did Leao’s wife, Angela Leao. The remaining defendants received sentences ranging from ten to twelve years.¹⁸¹⁹

What It Cost Mozambique, and What Comes Next

The $2 billion in hidden loans represented more than 12 percent of Mozambique’s GDP at the time. When the debts surfaced, donors and the IMF cut off support and the economy fell into crisis. As of 2026, World Bank and IMF analyses classify Mozambique’s public debt as being in distress and deem it unsustainable. Real income per capita remains below 2016 levels, and nearly two-thirds of Mozambicans live below the poverty line.⁶

Trying to rebuild credibility with international lenders, the government of President Daniel Chapo paid off its IMF debt early, completing a payment of approximately $700 million (514 million in special drawing rights) by March 31, 2026, and bringing its outstanding balance with the fund to zero. Finance Minister Carla Loveira called the repayment a “strategic economic policy instrument” aimed at improving the country’s sovereign risk profile.²⁰²¹

Whether Mozambique will actually collect on the London judgment is another matter. Observers have questioned whether Privinvest has sufficient assets to satisfy the award, and the pursuit of Iskandar Safa’s heirs through the English courts is still in its early stages.²⁸

1
UK Judiciary. Republic of Mozambique v Credit Suisse International, Judgment
2
Debt Justice. UK Court Rules That Mozambique Is Owed Over $2 Billion in Hidden Debt Case
3
ICLG. Ex-Credit Suisse Banker in Tuna Bond Scandal Escapes Prison
4
AIM News. Hidden Debts: Corrupt Credit Suisse Banker Avoids Jail
5
U.S. Department of Justice. Former Finance Minister of Mozambique Sentenced to 102 Months Imprisonment
6
Ecofinagency. Ten Years After Tuna Bonds, Mozambique Debt Scandal Continues to Shadow Credit Suisse
7
Brick Court Chambers. Judgment Given in Mozambique Tuna Bonds Litigation
8
AIM News. Hidden Debts: Privinvest Appeal Against Mozambique Dismissed
9
Club of Mozambique. Mozambique State Adds Heirs of Privinvest Owner Iskandar Safa to London Case
10
Jus Mundi. Privinvest v Republic of Mozambique, EWHC 1481
11
New York Times. Manuel Chang, Mozambique’s Former Finance Minister, Sentenced
12
World Money Laundering Report. Mozambique Tuna Affair Update
13
FCA. FCA Bans Former Credit Suisse Vice President
14
Wall Street Journal. Shipbuilding Executive Found Not Guilty in Mozambique Debt Fraud Trial
15
Global Anticorruption Blog. Don’t Believe the Spin on the Mozambican Acquittal
16
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. SEC Charges Credit Suisse for Fraudulent Mozambique Loan Offerings
17
Finews. Indictment Filed Against Former Credit Suisse Compliance Employee
18
Al Jazeera. Mozambique Ex-President’s Son, Ten Others Jailed Over Corruption
19
VOA News. Mozambique Court Jails 2 Former Spy Chiefs, 9 Others for Roles in $2.2 Billion Debt Scandal
20
Bloomberg. Mozambique Fully Repaid $701 Million IMF Debt Early
21
Club of Mozambique. IMF Debt Repayment Shows Mozambique Wants to Restore Confidence, Minister